Chapter 3

I headed down to a few more stalls and found another unique item I decided to buy. It was a dark red double breasted overcoat with sharp corners on all sides. The vendor I got the overcoat from was indifferent towards me and made me pay full price for it. I let them make a long cut down my back and went on my way to the dye vat vendors. The people who owned the dye vats were a favorite hot spot despite the terrible smells they produced. People called the vendors the Spectrumists because of their knowledge of every single color known. The vendors names were Tim, Tom, and Tam. People also called them their "Cup of T" to be funny, most people in the Blood Ruby nation had a good sense of humor. "Hey! it's Bloodshed!" Tom shouted to the others, I came here often with and without my parents to chat with all three of them when I could. "Hey Tom!" I called back, running towards them to brag about my purchases a bit. "How are you today?" Tammy asked, she was interested in what I was holding I could tell. "I'm great!" I said with an excited expression, "wanna guess what I got today?" I asked them. "Let me guess, is it a bunch of stuff you want us to dye?" Tim could always tell when I wanted to get something dyed.

"Of course" I said in a happy voice. "Want to see what I got?!" I asked in an excited voice. "Stop messing with us and show us what you have!" Tammy said pleadingly. I removed the clothes from the bag one by one presenting them to the eagerly waiting vendors with a few "ooh"s and "aah"s from the three of them and a few passersby who had caught a glimpse and liked what they saw. "Those are some really nice clothes, and you even got it partly armored; what exactly are you planning on doing?" Tim asked suspiciously. Normally I get regular clothes that just have unique designs or patterns on them, and Tim wasn't the only one who had caught on to what I had gotten. Tom and Tammy's faces were suddenly sullen and serious. "You're not seriously thinking of going to the End Game Battlegrounds are you?" Tom asked in disbelief.

I realized that I wasn't going to get away with going to the End Game Battlegrounds easily so I decided to tell them why I wanted to go, even though I could refuse to tell and they would still have to let me pay for their services I wanted to leave on good terms with them. "Yes I'm planning on going to the battlegrounds, I know it sounds like a bad idea but I know I can win. I normally wouldn't consider it but I have something I want to protect, and I know that when you win in the End Game Battlegrounds you can get a certain amount of items protected from everyone except other battleground champions." I finished what I was saying and immediately was met with a barrage of questions. "What could you possibly have that you would risk your life to protect?" Tammy asked. "Don't you know that almost anyone who enters the End Game Battlegrounds dies? It's suicide!" Tom exclaimed. "What makes you think you could go to the battlegrounds and win?" Tim asked.

"This is what I'm trying to protect" I said as I pulled out the pair of swords that I had strapped and sheathed behind my back. They all looked at the shiny red swords that I protruded and were stunned for a few seconds by the beauty of them, but quickly remembered what they were arguing about. "You're risking your life for a couple of swords? What's so special about these? can't you just get more?" Tom asked. "These were given to me by a lovely lady by the name of Miss Seraphila, that's why they're special; and I've looked to see if there were more of them but these are the only ones in existence." They all had slightly different expressions on their faces now. "Ohhh, a lady huh? I see why you're so keen on keeping those swords then." Tim smiled deviously. Tammy was still angry and had a hint of jealousy in her voice. "Only you would do such a stupid thing as risking your life for a girl you don't even know, there are plenty of other girls you know?!" Tammy's face was red and flustered.

"I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of other girls that are worth going after" I said looking at Tammy trying to get her to calm down, "I'm just saying that she was different in a way that I can't explain." Tammy blushed when I looked at her and angrily turned her head."Humph!" she huffed. I sighed and asked "Now that you know why I'm wanting to go can you please dye my clothes and armor?" They all gave a sigh and looked somewhat defeated, but they were ready to dye everything anyways. "What color do you want?" Tom asked me reluctantly. I thought about it for a few seconds, I knew what color I wanted it to be but I knew they could do some amazing things to make it even more personal. "I want it all dyed blood red, with a hint of fire red to add some lightness" I said finally. They went about gathering all the powdered colors to mix together, making exactly what I wanted and adding salt and vinegar to make the colors stand out more. They took the items from me and separately added them onto the metal plates held by a couple of chains and lowered them into the vats to let them soak in the color.

Once they were finished and dried off properly I asked if they could add some designs to the armor. "What kind of designs do you want?" Tammy asked. I was thinking of this as I was walking towards their stall earlier and I still wasn't sure what I wanted. Before I could say anything Tom turned to Tammy and whispered something in her ear, Tammy gasped excitedly and whispered back hurriedly. They both nodded to each other and produced a small colorful vial and a strangely patterning machine that had interchangeable parts. "What are those things?" I asked surprised and fascinated by these new objects that they'd never used before. "The vial contains something that we like to call color essence; this one is essence of red. It's our own special blend of every color with every color effect mixed meticulously to create this final product" Tammy said proudly. "And this machine here is something we rarely use because most people prefer one solid pattern" Tom said answering the use of the other object.

I was really interested in the idea of multiple patterns and a unique color crafted by the three of them, they lived up to the spectrumists titles that everyone gave them by a long shot. Had anyone else attempted to perfectly blend all the colors like they did it'd likely end in disaster. "That seems so expensive though, I don't know if I should try to pay for something as unique as that before going to the battlegrounds" I said wishing I could wear it. Tim piped up and said "You think we'd try and make you pay for something so expensive before a battle? What kind of friends would we be if we did that?" they all looked at me and smiled as they saw how happy I was. "You guys! that's the nicest thing you've ever done for me!" I exclaimed cheerfully. "It's no big deal, besides you're going to the battlegrounds so if anything were to happen to you you should at least have something unique to remember you by" Tom said sullenly.

I felt awful knowing that I was taking the risk of never seeing them again so I decided that I should give them something to remember me by, I had already left my parents everything else that I owned should I die. "If anything happens to me I want you all to have this to remember me by" I said sadly pulling out the knife that I marked as my blood tax weapon, since I was taking the risk of dying in the endgame battlegrounds I could give my blood tax weapon away to anyone I choose for them to have as a memento; if I won I could choose another one to replace it. "Your blood tax knife?!" Tammy said on the verge of crying along with Tim and Tom who were barely holding it together as well. "You better come back to pick this up, if you die we'll never want to look at it again because it'll be too painful to see" Tom said not looking at me.

They all looked at me with despair and I came over to give them all a hug individually. "I promise I'm gonna give everything I have to get back home and back here to see you all again" I tried to console them as best I could, feeling upset myself but not giving up going to the battlegrounds. "I love all of you, don't forget me okay?" I said, now it was my turn to look away from them. "You come back to us, don't make us come after you!" Tammy said laughing and then crying with Tom and Tim holding her between them. I came over and hugged Tammy one last time rubbing her back and letting her cry into my shoulder until she stopped and I went to leave and she grabbed onto me and held me tight trying to stop me, it was at that exact moment that my parents had made their way back to me. They were shocked to see Tammy holding on to me so fiercely. "What's going on here?" my dad asked and my mom kept staring at us confused.

"BETHELOD IS GOING TO THE BATTLEGROUND ARENA!" Tammy yelled at them bawling her eyes out. "What?" my parents both said looking at me shocked. I was going to go to the battlegrounds and have the guards to escort me home to say my last goodbyes but now I wouldn't have time so I just grabbed my things before Tammy or my parents could make a move towards it and broke free from Tammy's strong grip and ran away telling them all I loved them as I kept running until I could find somewhere to hide. I found a building that looked abandoned and I took a quick look behind to see if I had time to go in without being seen and heard them shouting looking for me and I ran inside before they got to where I could see them. I waited just listening and barely breathing afraid of getting caught, I heard them split up looking for me since they lost me and got down as low as I could not making any noise and waiting for whoever came my way to pass.

To my dismay the door opened and I only hoped they didn't find me hiding in the room I was in. I slowly peeked around the corner to see who it was and saw that it was Tim clearly intent on finding me and keeping me from going to the battlegrounds, he was clever so I would have to really use my surroundings to my advantage. I looked around to see if I could create a diversion somewhere else so I could make it to the Claret Center Transport before the other people looking for me could get there. I didn't see anything useful so I had to improvise, I thought about what would be the best way to make it sound as if I were outside and I pulled out my swords and took off my shoes putting them on the swords and banged them close to the top of the roof outside the window so he'd think I was on top of the building.

I heard him run out the door and toward the noise and stealthily ran towards the door before he got close to the room I was in and ran towards the transport section and quickly asked them to rent me anything they had that was silent, compact, and fast. They pointed to an electric motorcycle and I asked how much and they said 5 long cuts per day and I stuck out my arms to let them cut and asked them to try to do it as fast as they could because I was in a time sensitive situation and they pulled out a pair of blades for both arms; both with long slender handles for quick pulling making it fast and easy, one 3 bladed and one with 2 blades dragging on both arms quickly. I asked if I could have it now and they told me I could. I took a few bandages I kept on me out and wrapped my arms and scattered the sandy pathway that had my blood on it and drove off towards the battlegrounds.